Dec. 29—MORIAH — When Thomas Scozzafava was elected Moriah town supervisor in 1986 he was 29 years old and the youngest person ever to serve on the Essex County Board of Supervisors.

He’s retiring this weekend at age 67 as the longest serving town supervisor on the board.

Scozzafava leaves office at midnight on Friday, Dec. 28, and Deputy Supervisor Paul Salerno will run things until Moriah supervisor-elect Matthew Brassard is sworn in on Jan. 3.

‘YOU REALLY NEED TO CARE’

As he cleaned out his office at the Moriah Town Hall Thursday, Scozzafava reflected on his career in public office.

“This is a job where you really need to care about your community,” he said. “You learn every day in this job by listening to your constituents.”

He said it was just people calling on the phone when he got elected, but it’s now contact by social media, email and cell texts.

An electrician by trade, Scozzafava said he’ll now concentrate on his business.

“I’ll have my first Saturday off in 20 years, because that’s when I did electrical work,” he said. “I’m looking forward to retirement. It’s time.”

He praised his wife, Marylou, for supporting him while he was in office, despite many late night meetings and phone calls.

EARLY STRUGGLES

One of the major issues at the Essex County Board of Supervisors during his service was whether the county would join the consortium building a trash incinerator in Hudson Falls.

In 1988, Scozzafava was the swing vote on whether to join Warren and Washington counties in the Foster Wheeler trash-burning plant.

“It came down to the wire,” he said. “Because of the weighted vote system at the county I had the third highest number of votes.”

North Elba and Ticonderoga supervisors voted yes.

He voted no and with smaller towns voting with him, the burn plant deal was shot down.

Essex County built a landfill instead, but then-Gov. George Pataki was pressured by environmental groups to close that facility and the county was given a trash disposal subsidy instead.

“My decision was based on the financial responsibility,” Scozzafava said. “Essex County taxpayers would have had to be responsible for the revenue and for transporting the trash.”

After the contracts were signed and the plant was built and operating in 1991, Foster Wheeler sent Warren and Washington counties bills for millions of dollars. It turned out the contracts contained a clause making the counties responsible for covering any losses at the burn plant.

The plant is now operated by Wheelabrator Hudson Falls.

PROPERTY REVALUATION

The next big issue was a state-mandated property revaluation in the county in 1991.

“The state mandated we go to 100 percent of property value,” Scozzafava said. “Cole-Layer-Trumble did it and I thought they did a poor job.”

Moriah refused to pay its share of the project, $39,000, and sued the firm when the county paid the money from escrow without permission.

One good thing that came out of the revaluation, Scozzafava said, was that the county tax rate was standardized in all 18 towns. It had been different for every town based on their percentage of full value assessment.

Scozzafava also worked with County Treasurer Michael Diskin to set up a payment plan for property taxes if property owners wish to use it.

“You can also set up a payment plan for delinquent taxes,” Scozzafava said. “I’ve been finance chairman of the Board of Supervisors forever and Mike and I try to do what we can do to help people.”

‘IT’S BEEN FUN’

He said Brassard is now going to Board of Supervisors meetings in Elizabethtown with him and has been meeting other town supervisors.

“Matt has been going over different items with me,” Scozzafava said. “I’m only a phone call away if he has a question about anything.”

Brassard was already a member of the Moriah Town Council so he’s familiar with the workings of the town, Scozzafava said.

“We aren’t going to fill my council seat,” Brassard said. “It’s up for election this year and we’ll operate with a four member board until the election.”

He said he’s been meeting with Scozzafava on an almost daily basis as the transition nears.

“I will miss this job,” Scozzafava said. “It’s been fun. But change is good.”